Cost Of Home Printing 8X8

Personal Statement:Remember the little things for one day you will look back, and realize they were the BIG things

Gender:Female

Location:ND

Posted 03 July 2014 - 09:37 PM

Has anyone ever tried to figure out the cost of printing 8x8 LO's at home....my printer does an great job...but Scrapping Simply does an 8x8 for $1.....I know how much the paper would be.....how many LO's do you think a full set of ink Cartridges would print....have no idea how to estimate that...is there anyone here who has tried to figure it out??

I will also be watching this to see if anyone has a reasonable way to calculate. There are so many different factors. My good printer has a separate cartridge for each color and doesn't use as much ink as a printer that has 3 colors in one cartridge. Also, if I am not mistaken, Scrapping Simply does full bleed printing and that alone might be a determining factor. I hope someone has an answer. Carol, does Scrapping Simply run that 50 cent special on a regular basis?

I think alot depends on the cost of your cartridges. I only print at home if I've only got one or two to print.

Here in the UK it's cheaper to get 10 or more printed at the on-line shop I use. If I get 20 printed, it's even cheaper. Don't get as many special offers as you do, but this company does great bulk deals.

Personal Statement:Remember the little things for one day you will look back, and realize they were the BIG things

Gender:Female

Location:ND

Posted 04 July 2014 - 09:07 AM

I will also be watching this to see if anyone has a reasonable way to calculate. There are so many different factors. My good printer has a separate cartridge for each color and doesn't use as much ink as a printer that has 3 colors in one cartridge. Also, if I am not mistaken, Scrapping Simply does full bleed printing and that alone might be a determining factor. I hope someone has an answer. Carol, does Scrapping Simply run that 50 cent special on a regular basis?

Yes it was full bleed and beautifully done...perfect. I guess they have a different item on sale each Wednesday....They post it on their Facebook Page...

Personal Statement:Remember the little things for one day you will look back, and realize they were the BIG things

Gender:Female

Location:ND

Posted 04 July 2014 - 09:26 AM

My Ink cartridges are separate too,,,,and usually get them at Staples ALL the colors at one time would cost me $98.48.....that is the large capacity ones,,,,,,I use Epson Ultra Premium Glossy paper and that is $18.49 for a pac of 25 sheets.....so $73.96 for a hundred pages.....maybe a bit less if I use my Rewards card coupons and specials.......Have no idea how many LO's a new group of Ink cart would print,,,,would be interesting to have all new cart and then just print out till you started running out of ink..Did print one of the same LO I got from SS and I think their color was just a bit better ...a couple of my colors were a bit off....only I would know that and it wasn't enough to bother even me but still nice to know theres is so good......oh my total for a hundred LO's around $172.44......for just paper and ink...........SS does have a prepaid special of 200 8x8 LO'S for $158 and 100 LO's for $89....they say shipping is $5 -1-3day shipping Priority Mail.....$10 international shipping.....It is sounding better and better to me to order from here.

Forgot to mention there are several areas where you can pick them up at their locations so no shipping....do not remember where those were tho...definitely not out here on the prairie in ND LOL

Printers tell you their cartridge yield, which is the number of pages based on a certain amount of text coverage per page. For example, “1000 pages at 5% coverage”. However, printing a text page is different from printing an image. A 5% yield may work for a text page (mostly white space with very little area covered with ink) but not for a photograph or scrapbook page where the ink will cover all or almost all of the paper. (I would guesstimate 80% coverage for printing a full page graphic.)

Go to the site of the manufacturer of your printer

Go to the description of your printer

Look for and Click on the printer specifications

There should be a category called Yield or Cartridge Life

My own rough calculations come to 64 cents worth of ink plus $1.00 for the photo paper. I took the manufacturer's 4 cents per page and multiplied by 16 because to get from 5% coverage to 80% coverage is a factor of 16.

So bottom line, about $1.64 per page. This doesn't seem too high, but it doesn't take into account the initial layout of close to $200 in cartridges and photo paper.

Oh, and my calculation doesn't add in the extra cost of wasted ink and paper, because our prints ALWAYS come out perfectly, right? Even without my employee discount, it's less expensive for me to use professional printing services.

Personal Statement:Remember the little things for one day you will look back, and realize they were the BIG things

Gender:Female

Location:ND

Posted 04 July 2014 - 05:05 PM

Printers tell you their cartridge yield, which is the number of pages based on a certain amount of text coverage per page. For example, “1000 pages at 5% coverage”. However, printing a text page is different from printing an image. A 5% yield may work for a text page (mostly white space with very little area covered with ink) but not for a photograph or scrapbook page where the ink will cover all or almost all of the paper. (I would guesstimate 80% coverage for printing a full page graphic.)

Go to the site of the manufacturer of your printer

Go to the description of your printer

Look for and Click on the printer specifications

There should be a category called Yield or Cartridge Life

My own rough calculations come to 64 cents worth of ink plus $1.00 for the photo paper. I took the manufacturer's 4 cents per page and multiplied by 16 because to get from 5% coverage to 80% coverage is a factor of 16.

So bottom line, about $1.64 per page. This doesn't seem too high, but it doesn't take into account the initial layout of close to $200 in cartridges and photo paper.

I used to print at home, but have concluded it's cheaper and less stressful to get it done professionally. Costco does a great job for my occasional 8.5x11 prints, MyPublisher (now part of Shutterfly) does fabulous books. I print 4x6's with Shutterfly--I bought a package deal that's super-inexpensive, and they also have "100 free prints" periodically.

I used to print at home, but have concluded it's cheaper and less stressful to get it done professionally... I print 4x6's with Shutterfly--I bought a package deal that's super-inexpensive, and they also have "100 free prints" periodically.

Me, too. Buying blank photo paper costs more than 4x6 professional printing. I've paid as little as 10 cents a print and never more than 19 cents a print. Sometimes I wonder how they make any money? At these prices, I started making 8x6 mini-albums with two 4x6 pages.

I used to print at home, but have concluded it's cheaper and less stressful to get it done professionally... I print 4x6's with Shutterfly--I bought a package deal that's super-inexpensive, and they also have "100 free prints" periodically.

Me, too. Buying blank photo paper costs more than 4x6 professional printing. I've paid as little as 10 cents a print and never more than 19 cents a print. Sometimes I wonder how they make any money? At these prices, I started making 8x6 mini-albums with two 4x6 pages.

This is all such interesting information and Linda, I'm intrigued by your 8x6 mini albums as I too have been using the 4x6 print size (even for calendars) because it's so cheap to print at any store.

How do you make the albums 8x6? By having the pages side by side and bound in the middle?

I did a graduation album that way once and even bound it myself with my Bind-it-all!